Mercer Island Reporter, December 26, 2012

December 26, 2012 edition of the Mercer Island Reporter

REPORTER
Mercer
Island
www.mi-reporter.com
Serving the Mercer Island community since 1947
Closing the
books on 2012
A kitty for Christmas
Holiday closures
City offices, the post office and the Mercer Island
Library will be closed for
the holiday on New Year’s
Day, Jan. 1.
The Mercer Island
Reporter office will also be
closed for the holiday, Dec.
31 through Jan. 1.
Biggest stories include the school bond issue,
the ‘road diet,’ the election and now, safety
MIVAL artist
reception Jan. 3
The Mercer Island Visual
Arts League will host its
first event of 2013 on
Thursday, Jan. 3, with a gallery artist reception. New
works by 31 local artists will
be featured.
The event will take place
from 5 to 8 p.m. at the gallery, located at 2836 78th
Avenue.
MICEC closures
The Mercer Island Community and Event Center
has changed its hours for
the rest of the year in order
to conduct maintenance.
From Dec. 26 through
Dec. 29, the MICEC will
be open from 8:30 a.m.
through 5 p.m. On Dec. 30,
the hours will be 11 a.m. to
5 p.m.; and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
on Dec. 31. It will be closed
on Jan. 1.
Rebecca Mar/Staff Photo
Ginna Seese, an Island House resident, holds ‘Smokey Joe,’ the cat that she rescued and
adopted two and a half weeks before Christmas.
Saving
Smokey Joe
By Rebecca Mar
rmar@mi-reporter.com
The gray cat across the street from Ginna
Seese’s Island House apartment was not easy
to catch.
Seese’s own cat had recently died, and she
hadn’t planned to get another pet. But when
she first noticed the gray cat, ‘Smokey Joe,’
among the group of feral cats next to Island
House three months ago, she knew she had
to get him off the street.
When Seese and a few of her friends put
out food for the feral cats, Smokey would
eat and then routinely run off across 30th
Street.
Seese has been feeding feral cats for years
— even before she came to Island House,
when she lived in a First Hill neighborhood.
MEOW Cat Rescue has provided some of
the cat food.
Worried that Smokey could be hit by a car,
Seese decided to start feeding the cat on the
other side of the road, in the parking lot of
the Reporter.
Bedraggled, mangy and in obvious need
of veterinary care, Smokey would make his
Smokey | Page 12
Jeffrey Costello
206.595.5709
jeffreycostello@cbbain.com
The new year begins as the
Mercer Island High School
Marching Band appears in
the Rose Parade in Pasadena,
Calif. As the 270-member
band rounded the corner
onto Colorado Avenue, at
least one television station
went to a commercial, leaving Island viewers shaking
their fists at the TV. Luckily,
the march was soon posted
on YouTube.
Tolling begins on SR-520,
pushing thousands of motorists onto I-90 instead. Two
Island businesses, Quiznos
and Cellar 46, close.
Minimum wage for
Washington state workers
jumps 37 cents.
Councilmember Bruce
Bassett is sworn in as the new
mayor of the city of Mercer
Island.
Former mayor, Jim
Pearman, resigns after 10
years on the City Council.
Just four Islanders applied for
the position, in contrast to 17
who applied a few months
earlier to replace Steve Litzow,
who was elected to the State
Senate. Tana Senn is elected.
She joins Debbie Bertlin, who
was elected just two months
before, in the November election, when she ran against
incumbent El Jahncke.
A powerful windstorm on
Jan. 20 brings snow, downed
trees and power outages. Kids
grab their sleds and head for
the hills.
The city begins discussion
about ‘parking partners’ in
February
The Mercer Island School
District School Board votes to
put a $196 million bond issue
on the April 17 ballot. The
bond was to fund a major
construction effort to rebuild
Year | Page 2
Chase Costello
www.costello-costello.com
REPORTER
January
Want to recycle your
Christmas tree now that
the holiday is over? The
Mercer Island boys lacrosse
program is once again
picking up trees on Mercer
Island to be recycled.
Make a reservation at
www.mercerislandlacrosse.
com. Trees should be set
by the curb by 9 a.m. Tie a
donation (suggested $20)
to the tree.
Trees will be picked up
Dec. 29 or Jan. 5-6.
206.999.4420
chasecostello@cbbain.com
Mercer
Island
Recycle the tree
the Town Center as a way to
get property owners to agree
to share some parking in
their private lots. No progress
is made.
Services are held for
Islander pioneer Larry
Lunden, who is killed after
being hit by a car’s side view
mirror on Island Crest Way
as he stepped from the curb
into a crosswalk that had
been recently moved. He was
90. Lunden built the family
home on the Island by hand
in the late 1940s.
One year $39, two years just $59
By Mary L. Grady
editor@mi-reporter.com
SUBSCRIBE
call (253) 872-6610
MI | THIS WEEK
Wednesday, December 26, 2012 | 75¢